1st Time Sw Adventure In A 29gal

[apelaston]

I have been taking care of freshwater tanks since i was about 10 years old and currently have a 90 gal planted tank and a 55 gal agressive tank. As of today I 'borrowed' my two year old sons tank to start my first saltwater adventure. I am scared to death, but I have been researching for months and months, and the last month have been reading for hours a day on the subject, care, setup etc. I couldn't wait any longer.
So i went to buy a heater for my tank today and came home with 10lb live sand and 6 lb live rock and 5 crabs that the girl threw in for me. I have no idea what they are-YET.
I have everything in the tank(been working since early this morning) and now I am waiting for the water to clear from when I added my sand.
Right now I am using a 20w (36") 18,000k power-glo light which I will upgrade as soon as I get some more sand and live rock...filter is a Aquatech HOB filter which I am going to upgrade when I get more live rock as well. Also in my tank in a powerjet 550 to add flow. It is really moving the water quick in my tank right now...I have it aimed more towards the top of the water to help the sand settle....
I will post pictures as I update..I am waiting for the water to settle and then will get my test readings for everyone.
Any suggestions so far? I am sooo nervous about starting this and failing(which I will not allow to happen so I don't know why I worry lol) but still. I do not know any one with a SW tank so I am alone in this conquest without you guys. I found this forum from a google search lol.
HELP is going to be needed here and greatly appreciated. I have done my homework as I stated, but reading is soooo much different than doing! EEK

 

[ecooper]

Welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy your time here. It sounds like you have done your homework. Good! I'm just glad to see you haven't thrown in any fish. Not sure what kind of crabs they might be, but inverts don't do well in the first part of the tank cycle. So, don't know how they'll do.
What do you plan to put in the tank? Fish, coral?
Good luck!

 

[apelaston]

I am going to TRY and get some low light corals in there--nothing major unless I upgrade to my 55 or 90 down the line (ideal plan teeheehee) I love the looks of zoa's and the variety of colors and colony's that they spread into as well. That is about as far as I have gone with that part of the tank.
I am going to keep a good eye on my lil' inverts to see how they do during the cycling process, but hopefully with the addition of some more live rock on tuesday I will be able to maintain the ammonia,trites, and trates well enough for them to start my lil' cuc. I would also like to add a pompom crab at some point and LOVE the look of coco worms and featherdusters, so whatever I get are going to be FD & CW friendlys...
I am a shrimpie fan, and HAVE to get a pair of sexy's

and a 'nemo shrimp for my son(cleaner shrimp) to justify the use of his tank haha.
I have been eyeballing a lawnmower blenny(orange spotted hopefully) and a few different goby's that I like. I would like to get a few smaller fish to swim the tank as well, but haven't researched that far yet into what is going to stay happy in my smaller setup....
I am going to be adding another 10 lb live sand(tuesday) and atleast 6 more lbs live rock tuesday. I want to end up with approx. 30lbs LR ideally..
Is that around what I should be aiming for?

 

[ecooper]

Mushrooms would be good too. A lawnmower blenny will probably outgrow the 29 and wreck some things. Mine has a lot of energy.
So far, things sound good.

 

[apelaston]

ok i was wondering about the growth of the lawnmower blenny...how big would a 'yellowheaded jawfish' get? Would that be compatible with my 29 gal? A local guy I met who has a saltwater suggested that I get one because of there personalities and activities. I want a watchman goby as well for my son to watch.

 

[apelaston]

Ok i have found life besides the crabs the LFS girl threw in my bag...a small starfish--about as wide across as a pencil eraser- leg to leg. It is black and white striped with very very thin legs and it 'prickly' looking. Is this a brittle star? It is too small for my camera to pick up for a picture. Tomorrow i am going for another 10 lb of sand and a few more live rocks. woohoo. Also picking up my testing kit tomorrow for my pH, trites, trates, and ammonia so I can start following the cycle process.

 

[apelaston]

added another 10lbs of live rock and 5lbs of live sand. Also got 2 blue damsels today for my tank. I have checked all the perimeters and everything gone back down to acceptable levels for fish. Wish the new live rock which has a ton of sponges on it(but dead due to exposure) i am going to have to watch my trates,trites, and ammonia closely this week and keep up with my water changes. The fish are settling in nicely into the cloudy water from the sand, but have already set up homes in two spots of the tank-one pushed sand out from under a rock and the other took up residency in a tunnel in the rock. Yippeee.

 

[apelaston]

been a few days since i added my live rock and this morning i woke up and a snail was plastered to the glass. Not sure how it made it through the scrubbing i did to the rock or the 30 minutes that it took me to get the rock home sitting on newspaper in a box no water, but he did. ....

 

[morval]

sounds like its comming along nicely

but damsels ugg

i would have went with clownfish personaly, damsels will get nasty and may pick on other fish u add

, they are the devil, i would take them back to the store for trade or credit. as for the snail and star those are just the first of a bunch of things u will see crawling out of ur rock wait till the pods start running all over the place when u turn the lights on

 

[apelaston]

I already spotted some pods running around--with my flashlight. CREEPY LOL. No doubt the exact reason I will not touch anything without gloves *shakes her tail feathers* As for the damsel it is definately not permanent in my tank! I already got rid of one...I am going to get a pair of clowns def once i get the correct lighting so that I can get an anemone for them. (my 2yr old is a def. finding nemo fan soo i am obligated lol) also looking to get a watchman goby and jawfish. Not sure what else I am going to get after that until I upgrade.. maybe 2 sexy shrimp and a cleaner and call it full.
Also i found this somewhere..is this a good deal? Or strong enough to support some beginner corals or an anemone?
24" Compact flourescent marine auarium light. Has 1 420/450 nm actninic blue and 1 12,000 K daylight. 65 watts each for a total of 130 watts. Great salt water/reef light for corals and anenomes. Also have an extra true actninc bulb that goes with it. Has 4 LED blue moon lights and 2 built in cooling fans. Will take $100.00. plus they are going to get me a few soft corals...
Anyways here are my pics so far....
day 1

hermits cleaning the tonga

new rock

FTS from kitchen-clear after less than 12 hours this time.

FTS from living room

 

[morval]

$100 for a pc light with corals is a good deal. but might be a bit soon to put corals in the tank. power compact will support softies(mushrooms, zoas, leathers, etc) and some LPS (candy cane, torch, frogspawn, etc).

 

[apelaston]

Originally Posted by morval
http:///forum/post/2580032
$100 for a pc light with corals is a good deal. but might be a bit soon to put corals in the tank. power compact will support softies(mushrooms, zoas, leathers, etc) and some LPS (candy cane, torch, frogspawn, etc).
yea i already told the person who has it for sale that i would have to wait on the corals until the cycle is done and i do my research on that coral.

 

[apelaston]

K am starting to plan for my cleanup crew but am not sure what I needwant. I know I want a pistol shrimp and a cleaner shrimp and anything else that is reef friendly. Any suggestions? I have looked up prepackaged CUC on the web and they are all sooo different. I am open to all suggestions.
I have 6 hermit crabs now that came with my rocks... but what kind of snails, shrimps, crabs, urchins, stars? whatever. Help me out please.

 

[kikithemermaid]

Definitely get turbo snails, they do great cleanup. I have a 28 gallon and have 3 snails but that isn't enough, I need to get more. I also have 10 red leg hermits, a cleaner shrimp and a tuxedo urchin. And a creepy red and white snail that moves really fast and only comes out at night.

 

[apelaston]

Ok I took my water tests this morning to see how I was doing and nothing. Everything is zero and pH is still 8.3 6 hours later I checked again to see if I was crazy and 0 across the boards again.
So anyways I went to LPS and got a few more pieces of live rock, a small crab that I am going to need help Identifying(freebie from my friend that works there), 2 turbo snails, and also a lawnmower blenny. I know he wasn't in the plans, but he is pretty small and was only 7.00 and he batted his eyelashes at me I HAD TO! I was already checked out when I saw him...lol had to checkout again...erg. lol
I will post pictures later after my camera battery charges and the blenny gets more comfortable in his new home...he has been in for about an hour now and has explored about half of the tank so I am pretty pleased already...
But can someone tell me what they feed there lawnmower? I know what the LPS guy said, but I want a few other opinions as well.....i was not thrilled with his answers..

 

[apelaston]

new pics of crab, lawnmower blenny, and rocs.....needing to buy a magfloat for my glass i think-there is sand dust all over it..erg..

 

[lando101]

Very nice!!!! Love the setup! I'd get a royal gramma, thats shure to add some color!
p.s. We both live in Ohio!

 

[triga22]

Is the tank cycled? Its coming along good. But remember to pace yourself and dont get ahead.

 

[apelaston]

I am hoping it is through with its cycle. i had an ammonia spike. Trates went up nitrites went up and now everything is down to zero. I did a 5gal water change on the 24th and still had ammonia afterwards and haven't touched the water since. So from freshwater experience I am saying I am done?
I had a slight diatom covering in one corner where my flow isn't so great)need another Powerhead) but even that is starting to resolve itself.
I am not adding anything else for a minimum of a week fish wise. I am going to add some more FULLY cured live rock later on this week however, so i will be carefully watching my water for any spike..

 

[apelaston]

Originally Posted by Lando101
http:///forum/post/2587958
Very nice!!!! Love the setup! I'd get a royal gramma, thats shure to add some color!
p.s. We both live in Ohio!

I am going to get a yellowwatchman and a fire fish eventually...those should add some color..the gamma are nice as well. Good suggestion-i hadn't really thought about that.
I go to Dayton all the time- it takes me about 40 minutes to get there. But where I live we don't have any good places to shop.
Do you kknow of any good fish stores in dayton that i should know about? The one I go to is in Piqua....and it is no prize.